I responded to a call on the Backwards Beekeepers rescue hotline last week when a guy got back from an extended trip to Mexico to find that bees had taken up residence in his cat’s house on the balcony of his Marina del Rey apartment. He returned home to find his balcony covered in dead bees and peeled back a rolled up carpet to find the hive bulging out of the fabric cat house. Penniless from his vacation, he plied my conservation guilt to take the bees off his hands gratis. In cases where I don’t have to drive very far, I often find myself making this bargain, though as my beekeeping expenses add up, I find myself a little resentful of the exterminators making hundreds to kill or remove the “pests.” At any rate, I digress.

The morning after picking up the bees from the balcony, I brought them to a couple’s house I had met on a previous rescue. As vegans, they have no interest in the honey, but they know that the urban environment is the future for the honeybee and were only happy to make their beautifully landscaped backyard available to my cat house bees.

This was my first cut-out, and like all firsts, I made a few mistakes. The first mistake was that I did it by myself. Probably could have used someone with some experience in my ear, but I figured I had read enough and watched enough videos…not so much. The second mistake was that on my first cut-out, I elected to move the bees into a top-bar hive I had just built. The hive in itself wasn’t the problem – it was built to spec with wood molding for comb guides. The problem was tying in the salvaged comb. It did not want to cooperate at all. In the end, completely covered in honey, pollen and all things sticky, I was able to make it work but it wasn’t without tremendous effort. The final mistake I made was briefly unzipping my veil just a fraction of an inch. It was just enough time for a bee to shoot the gap and sting me between the eyes. It actually didn’t hurt all that bad, but later that night my face had swelled up pretty good. I woke up the next morning looking like a Navi from Avatar.

The best part of the entire experience came when I found the queen in a pile of bees on the ground. I held out my finger for her and she walked right on. I then held my finger just inside the top bars and she instantly rejoined her compadres.

I was also able to harvest a Mason jar full of fresh, raw honey. Nothing has ever tasted quite so sweet. This was easily one of the best, most educational experiences of my life. Can’t wait for the next cut-out, though no matter how itchy my nose gets, I’m staying zipped up

“The bees have long been a favorite collaborator for Aganetha Dyck, a Canadian artist born near Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1937. Dyck, whose artistic statement expresses a fascination with “how knowledge is transported and transcribed between humans and other species,” has been working together with swarms of bees since 1991 to create fantastical pieces that combine the creations of humanity with the creations of nature’s pollen-bearers.”

“One of the great metaphors for creative community is the hive where many interact for the benefit of the collective. When the hive is successful it produces an abundance of honey. It is possibly the clearest symbiotic relationship that humans have with the insect kingdom. We don’t need to be reminded of the pollination of plant life that is attributed to bees. Bees make a great deal more honey than they can use. Who do they make it for? The rest of us. For the benefit of all sentient bee-ings. Bees appear in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and have been revered as sacred throughout the world.” – Alex & Allyson Grey

Rob and Chelsea went last night and rescued our new swarm from a pine tree over looking the water in Pacific Palisades. Rob captured them in a one foot square cardboard box and had duct taped the flaps so that the bees were locked in for the night.

Rob and I nailed and glued the 2 hive boxes and 20 frames and then we put on our beekeeper suits. The photo below is of us – just before Rob cut open the cardboard and got the bees settled into their new hive. It’s on the deck facing north so they can “enjoy” the afternoon sun and cool sea breezes.

The colorful gardens below have a huge variety of native plants and trees including sage, lavender, mint, goldenrod, daisies, bougainvillea, pine, yucca, olive and many more.

Leslie and I hope our transplanted bees like their new home… can’t imagine its TOO hard to adapt from their ocean view in Pacific Palisades to their brand new home overlooking the ocean in Laguna Beach. Rob says we have a 50% chance they’ll stay. He said it usually takes about three weeks to know…. personally I think they already know that they have found “the good life”.

“When a swarm of honeybees showed up at my work, my colleagues were eager to get in on the action. Everyone pitched in – from keeping track of the roving swarm and talking to the neighbors, to helping me get to the bees and bravely documenting the capture.

All the bees made their way into the box, and luckily just a day before I’d built a top-bar hive for a friend who Chelsea persuaded to let us keep bees in his backyard. Later that evening Chelsea and I showed up to his house with a buzzing box, and after some assurances (*and a tiny amount of peer pressure) we installed the bees successfully.

We checked up on them a little over a week later and they were already building lots of comb and looking happy. We’ll see in a couple of week if they choose to stick around in my DIY top bar hive. Check back to see how the CG bees take to their new home.”

recent blog posts

Why “Urban” Beekeeping?

We at HoneyLove believe that the city is the last refuge of the honeybee. Our home gardens are generally free of pesticides, and in cities like Los Angeles, there is year-round availability of pollen and nectar for the honeybees!

how can you help?

Become a member of HoneyLove and learn to be an urban beekeeper!

Plant an organic garden without the pesticides that harm honeybees!

Provide a water source on your property – bees love clean water to drink!